Old Mutual International, the cross-border business of Old Mutual Wealth, announces the launch of a new Trust Decision Tool and Trust Form Finder, to help strengthen its compelling Trust proposition. The new tools will provide advisers with additional support and improved navigation, helping to make the choice of which trust to use simpler and easier.

The Trust Decision Tool is now available on the Old Mutual International website and is for advisers to use with their customers. The tool will take advisers through a few simple questions before it suggests which trust may be suitable for their customer’s circumstances. Advisers with little or no knowledge of trusts often feel trusts are complicated to understand and are not confident enough to recommend them. The simplicity of the tool should help eliminate this fear and should encourage more advisers to use trusts.

The Trust Form Finder will be available on the Old Mutual International website in the coming weeks and will automatically select the required documentation for the customer and adviser depending on which trust they select. This will help in cases, such as professional trust company cases, where there are a number of different legal documents which all must be completed.

Trusts have become a fundamental part of wealth management and can help advisers demonstrate the real value of the advice they provide to their customers. Typically, trusts are utilised in complex family situations such as forced heirship, avoidance of probate, or to mitigate inheritance tax liabilities (IHT) and for the purposes of protection and control of assets.

To further help and support advisers using trusts, Old Mutual International has built a new trust hub, called the ‘trustability hub’ which hosts useful guides, videos and articles. This can be found at www.oldmutualinternational.com/trustability. Here, advisers can also view Old Mutual International’s ‘techcellence’ material, a comprehensive series of videos aimed at ‘cutting through the noise’ and helping advisers develop their technical knowledge.

Rachael Griffin, financial planning expert at Old Mutual Wealth, commented: “We are committed to building a market leading range of trusts together with innovative ways to provide technical support to advisers. Trusts are under-utilised, yet they can be a really powerful tool for advisers to use with their customers. Those investing significant sums in an offshore portfolio bond will be the type of customer who is in greatest need of wealth planning, and using trusts can help mitigate tax exposure and protect their assets for their beneficiaries. Choosing a provider with a full range of trust options will help ensure the customer’s needs are fully met and assets are placed within the most efficient trust wrapper. The Trust Decision Tool combined with the Trust Form Finder will help to simplify our Trust proposition and help remove any barriers for advisers.”

Photo - Rachael Griffin.